China

Trends in the early Qing

The tripling of China’s population from the beginning of the Qing dynasty to the mid-19th century rested on the economic expansion that followed the consolidation of Manchu rule. This population growth has been frequently cited as the major cause of the decline of China in the 19th century. Certainly, by the year 1800 the Qing state’s surpluses—sufficient through the 18th century to pay for numerous military expeditions—were exhausted in the long campaign to quell the White Lotus Rebellion. Whereas fiscal reforms had strengthened the state in the 18th century, fiscal weakness plagued Qing governments thereafter. The vaunted power of the Qing armies also waned after 1800, in part because of new modes of warfare. Increased commercialization had tied more and more Chinese into large market fluctuations. In the 18th century the world market economy into which China was increasingly integrated worked in its favour and stimulated a long period of internal prosperity. But the favourable trend was reversed in the 1820s and ’30s, when rising opium imports altered the net balance of trade against China and ushered in a period of economic depression. Evelyn S. Rawski